In this audio, UPND president Hakainde Hichilema charges that President Edgar Lungu is secretly funding home affairs minister Stephen Kampyongo to organise political violence in the country.

Speaking in Chilanga when he visited a Mr and Mrs Ndhlovu who were allegedly attacked by PF cadres, the UPND leader said Zambians will not wait in their homes for the PF to go and kill them.

“You are lucky to have people in the UPND who do not want violence. If we were violent, the country would be ungovernable today. But we don’t want to walk the road of thugs, because if we behave like them, obviously there will be no difference. But there is a limit to everything, we cannot continue behaving like this. Stop it now, I am directing this to the PF minister, Kampyongo,” Hichilema said.

“A lot of these things are happening now because of Kampyongo saying a lot of things openly, that he wants dialogue and stability, but in the night he is the one organising these thugs. It is him Kampyongo, but who is allowing him to do this, it’s Lungu. No one can doubt that it is Lungu who is secretly organising and funding Kampyongo and his thugs. Unfortunately, this is happening with police complicity. I say this because if the police were serious, they would have rushed to the scene and rescued these citizens. Citizens are now on their own, how do you expect citizens to survive, you want them to sit and wait to be killed by the PF? That’s not how God created the world.”

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He added that President Lungu’s main preoccupation was protecting members of the PF, not ordinary citizens.

“I urge Lungu to stop this violence. If you don’t want to be treated like this, then you must take responsibility to stop this thuggery now. You still have an opportunity to stop this thuggery now, otherwise, what I have said for a long time has come to pass, that there is no leadership in the country. There is no political leadership that is responsible for the whole country,” said Hichilema.

“There is only half, not even half, but quarter of a leadership whose main responsibility is to look after members of the PF. We have a leadership whose main preoccupation is to steal money from the public through the loans they are procuring, through fertiliser. If you want to be treated properly, you have to show leadership now.”

The PF and UPND clashed in during a local government by-election campaigns in Chilanga two weeks ago, leaving several people from both rival groups seriously injured.